The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1887-06-30

A call, DuJ gwen IN very SuDdued
voice. The lady addressed-a pretty
blonde of thirty or thereabouts, with
a winsome matronly dignity of man
ner-looked up from her sewing. At
the window her sister was beckoning
to her.
New arrivals?" she asked, tossing
aside the small garment she was re-
pairing. Il did not hear the cab"
Carriage" said the younger lady,
still in the low voice; "and-and-I
was sure | was not mistaken-Mr.
Sargeant."
That handsome Ellis Sargeant we
met in London last winter? So it isw
The carriage, which had been ap-
preaching slowly as the sisters spoke.
had reached now the top of the hill
upon which the hotel was situated,
and, screened by their closed blinds,
they watched Ellis Sergeant as he
sprang from the seat beside the driver,
and opened the door of the closed
carriage.
An elderly lady was the first to
alight; then an old servant; and
then
The two ladies at the window drew
back with a shudder of horror and
pity as the next traveller, carefully
assisted by the others, came cautiously
from the carriage.
A slight figure, held with the uncer-
tain dropping attitude of the blind,
tiny hands outstretched, but a face
whose sears, lines, and Disagreement
were beyond description; vivid scarlet
lines and FUCKERS telling of some fiery
ordeal, while the tightly-closed lids
spoke eloquently of the Sightless eyes
they covered.
Under the close-ftting bonnet short
curling hair could be seen; but the
veil. that had been drawn over the
face, had caught in the carriage-top,
and been torn from the disiigured
countenance.
"Oh, Clara!" Amy Pauling gasped,
her pretty face actually pale with
horror. did you ever see anything
so terrible?"
Mrs. Moore shuddered, and her
voice was full of womanly pity as she
replied:
Poor girl! Oh, Amy, think what
she must have suffered! And blind,
too"
That is a mercy, not a misfortune"
said Amy quickly. '.She may forget
the dreadful face if she never sees it.
Who can she be?"
The same question was asked by
more than one inmate of the Noun
tain House before the day was over.
Evidently she was an invalid, for she
was tenderly assisted to her room, and
left it only for a daily drive.
The names registered upon the hotel
books were Mrs. William Sergeant,
Ellis Sergeant Miss Restyne, and
maid. And Mr.. Sergeant finding
some friends in the hotel, introduced
the sweet-faced old lady as his mother.
But neither spoke of Miss Restyne
excepting as friend, and never men,
toned her unless some direct question
was asked.
But in that winter in London, where
Amy Pauling had met Ellis Sargeant
constantly in society, she had found
his handsome face and gentle manner
attractive beyond those of any other
gentleman in her large circle of ac-
quaintances.
Her brother-in-law, a man of wealth
and position, took an active interest in
politics, and Amy, pretty, accom-
plished, and most daintily high-bred,
was very much admired in Mrs.
MOOre'S ''Set."
But her heart, at twenty-five, was as
untouched rs it had been at six, until
Ellis Sergeant had made his first court
eous greeting. and paid her later the
attentions of a friend.
Never, by word or look, had he gone
further, and more than one fair damsel
had sighed over his grave reticence,
and vet Amy had fancied sometimes
that he found some attraction at Mrs.
Moore'S beyond her brother-in-law'
political discussions, or Clara's we'll
ordered dinners.
There had been three weeks of the
pleasant intercourse that is so easy
between inmates of the same hotel at
a summer resort, when one afternoon
Amy, seated upon the porch of wing
of the hotel she had not before visited,
was in earnest conversation with
new arrival, a school-friend she had
not seen for four years.
And this friend. after an interchange
of condolences, was telling Amy a
story, the absorbing interest of which
she little guessed.
Behind the closely-shut blinds
against which she, Belle Creighton,
leaned her pretty head, another list
ener lay upon an invalid-chair, resting
from her drive.
Just to think" Belle said ''of Ellis
Sergeant being here! And Fanny
Restyne! Have you seen her?"
'1es-only once. She is generally
heavily yelled when she goes out to
drive, but l saw her the day she came"
They say she does not know what
horror she is. No one else. sees her
but Margaret, and Margaret was
Ellis's old nurse, and. OF course,
worships Fanny. You would rot be-
lieve that Fanny Restyne, three years
ago. was beauty
Here the little hands of the listener
behind the closed blinds went softly to
her face. covering ii. though she was